The Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays. Most of my memories revolve around fireworks (professional displays - only bad memories are from bottle rockets and black cats!), strawberries, burgers, watermelon, homemade ice cream, swimming... I grew up in the country and from my parents' backyard, we could see all of the surrounding towns' fireworks displays far off in the distance.

ABOVE : A simple Fourth of July setting on our side porch. I cut some blue hydrangeas from our yard and put them in a white pitcher - requires very little skill. Ok, it requires no skill. Just make sure you have plenty of water - the hydrangeas will drink it up in a hurry. The handled mason jars are great glasses, especially as they display with small flags. A light blue cake plate holds piles of stars and strawberry sugar cookies (get recipe here!).

I decided to make some strawberry sugar cookies to go along with the blue and white stars in honor of the Verrill Farms Strawberry Fest and Recipe Contest this weekend. I'm looking for a recipe to enter into the competition... I'm leaning towards a berry cake of some sort? Leave a comment with your suggestions!